Schools' Deep-Pocketed Partners

BY ALISON LEIGH COWAN

Published: June 3, 2007

IN those final weeks before summer vacation, when temperatures can soar into the 90s, parents at 5 of Greenwich's 11 elementary schools without adequate air-conditioning could no longer watch their children wilt, along with the crayons, in the heat. So they approached the school board and air-conditioning was installed -- but not at the expense of property taxpayers; the parents raised the money.

Students in two other elementary schools in town, without the same deep-pocketed parents, had to wait, however. They were finally granted air-conditioning after town officials squeezed the upgrades into capital budgets financed by taxpayers.

In the last decade, a growing number of parents, alumni and corporations have been donating private money to public schools for a wide range of school equipment, educational supplies, artists-in-residence and accouterments that go beyond the traditional PTA gifts and what may otherwise be outside the local school board's spending plan.

Some schools have used the donated money to provide basics, at a time when many districts are facing ballooning instructional costs coupled with taxpayer fatigue. Especially in areas like Long Island and Westchester, where voters rejected some school budgets and forced deep budget cuts, some schools have come to rely on parental contributions to nonprofit educational foundations created to finance extracurricular activities like the football team and the drama club.

Other districts, including several in New Jersey, have used educational foundations to help add frills: greenhouses and weather stations, climbing walls and film libraries, and in one case, a quilting machine.

In Greenwich, school administrators had to set caps on how much donors could collectively give to a single school, all in the name of fairness. Now even that policy is being revisited after it became apparent how adept parents were at persuading school officials to waive the caps if the donations to an individual school were significant enough. District officials also noticed over time that donors did not always supply operating funds needed to make use of the gifts and maintain them in years to come.

''There was a sense that the existing procedure may not be sufficiently achieving the goal of equity across schools, and air-conditioning in the schools was one example,'' said Susan O. Wallerstein, Greenwich's assistant superintendent for business services.

In Greenwich, the debate over what schools ''need to have'' versus what would be ''nice to have,'' as Dr. Wallerstein put it, focused on air-conditioners and more recently, on music lessons, field trips, butterfly gardens and nifty classroom tools like smart boards.

While it may be tempting to let private donors give to a favorite school, parents and policymakers are wrestling with the implications of accepting some of those gifts. In response to this concern, officials in many communities have created nonprofit foundations that serve all schools within a district, which Greenwich has now done with its Greenwich Alliance for Education.

''My goal is to provide these opportunities and services so that all kids in town have opportunities for success, not just the privileged ones,'' said Nancy Kail, the alliance's chairwoman. As a recent example, the alliance has provided music lessons for pupils who otherwise might not be able to develop the skills needed to participate later in the high school band.

Consultants estimate that more than 5,000 such foundations exist nationwide, roughly equal to one out of every three school districts. The foundations seem to thrive best in well-off towns, whose residents are eager and able to support the schools, and in distressed cities that can attract traditional grants aimed at easing poverty. That leaves many districts muddling along without a strong financial partner.

Take the local educational foundation in Middletown, N.J. It nearly folded in 2003 because it had too few volunteers to serve on its 10-member board. ''We've struggled,'' said Nancy Ryan, a mother of two who joined the board in late 2003 and up until recently served as its president.

For all its trials, the group has managed to deliver a $2,400 quilting machine for the high school, a $7,900 weather station for an elementary school, $14,000 in mountain bikes, $200 for a rocket-boosting club, and $850 for a ballroom-dancing program.

The foundation has also helped some of the district's more overburdened schools apply for grants so all the resources don't go to a handful of successful schools that are adept at seeking funds.

Philanthropic efforts in Colts Neck, N.J., also suffered a serious blow in December when the police charged Mark A. Vernaglia, the treasurer of the Colts Neck Education Foundation, with looting more than $147,000 of that foundation's money in addition to other crimes. Mr. Vernaglia has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In sharp contrast, the educational foundation in Wall Township, N.J., has had little trouble packing its board with eager volunteers. Known as the Wall Foundation for Educational Excellence, it gave its schools a $110,000 greenhouse in 1992 and $155,000 in television equipment in 2000. The $60,000 in equipment for a ropes course arrived in 2004. The foundation is building an $84,000 outdoor amphitheater for the high school, complete with a koi pond.